Alabama Education Association's polling arm suspends operation

Capital Survey Research Center, the polling arm of the Alabama Education Association, has suspended operation.

A bill passed in the special session of the Legislature last month bars deduction of AEA dues from state paychecks if the money is used for political purposes, including polling and political advertising.

"AEA deeply regrets, particularly at this time, the loss of some 30 jobs in the Center and looks forward, as it becomes possible, to reactivating the work of CSRC and its important role in the state's public policy processes," Capital Survey director Gerald Johnson said in a news release issued this afternoon.

The center suspended operation Monday, according to the release.

Capital Survey, established in 1996, conducts election-related polls, but it also surveys opinion on general public policy topics and has conducted polls for local school systems and government agencies, according to the release.

"Public opinion polling plays an important role in decision-making in both the public and private sectors. The suspension of the work of CSRC comes at a cost to the public democratic processes of the state including planned surveys on a number of important projects such as a survey on the extension of public school taxes for Mobile County public schools," Johnson said in the release.